A decision algorithm for distributive unification

Manfred Schmidt-Schauβ
1998 Theoretical Computer Science  
The purpose of this paper is to describe a decision algorithm for unifiability of equations w.r.t. the equational theory D of two distributive axioms: x * (y + z) = x * .L' + Y * 2 and (X + y ) *z = x * z + y * z. The algorithm is described as a set of non-deterministic transformation rules. The equations given as input are eventually transformed into an ACl-unification-problem with linear constant restrictions. Since the algorithm terminates. this is a solution for an open problem in the field
more » ... of unification and shows decidability of D-unification. One spin-off is an algorithm that decides the word-problem w.r.t. D in polynomial time. This is the basis for an I .P-algorithm for D-matching, hence D-matching is .I 'Y-complete. A further (future) spin-off is a decision algorithm for stratified context unification problems.
doi:10.1016/s0304-3975(98)00081-4 fatcat:odbx6fippjardis5viyq72cegu